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Creator:

Holtby, Dana

Date:

2016

Abstract:

With a growing number of mining and extractive resource projects across the North, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency has piloted the “Community Readiness Initiative” (CRI). The CRI aims to prepare communities to take advantage of the anticipated boom in mining through community consultations in seven northern communities. This thesis examines the Kugluktuk, Nunavut CRI through an analysis of CRI templates, reports and through interviews with key informants. The CRI templates are examined through the questions of critical cartography to explore how the project’s construction contributes to an entrenchment of the mining economy in Nunavut. The governmental and biopolitical implications of the project are also explored through an analysis of the limitations faced in implementing the recommendations of the CRI consultations. My work argues that the CRI creates certain openings for Indigenous articulations of well-being, but falls short in its ability to create much needed structural changes to development programming.